Search

News

World T20, Ind vs Aus: As it happened

Chasing 141 to win, the Aussie openers Shane Watson (72) and David Warner (63 not out) hit fifties to see their team home in the Super-8 game.

Australia innings:

14.5 overs: Australia 141 for 1 R Ashwin to bowl this over. Maxwell gets a two off the third. Now one is needed. Australia win by nine wicket. A crushing defeat for India. That's it from me. Will be back tomorrow with the England-New Zealand tie at 3 pm IST. Till then goodbye.

14th over: Australia 138 for 1 Yuvraj continues. And Watson launches him into the stands. Yuvraj hits back. Sends back Watson. But too late in day. The Aussie slams it straight into the hands of substitute Manoj Tiwary at the covers. Glenn Maxwell is the next man in. Warner gets a four off the fifth. The last ball is a dot. Australia now need 3 to win.

Watson c sub (MK Tiwary) b Yuvraj Singh 72 (42)

Watson c sub (MK Tiwary) b Yuvraj Singh 72 (42

13th over: Australia 124 for 0 Fielding has also been very bad. Chawla lets one get through his hands. Poor stuff. Meanwhile, David Warner also runs to his fifty. Comes off 37 balls. Eighth for him. Watson finishes the over with a four. 12 off it.

12th over: Australia 112 for 0 Now Yuvraj Singh comes on to bowl. Dhoni has eggs all over his face, one has to say. But Yuvraj does a good job. Just two off the over. Here is one stat: Watson joins Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle in terms of fifties. Nine each.

11th over: Australia 110 for 0 Virat Kohli comes on to bowl and Watson bludgeons him for a six. What a shame. India went in with five bowlers and they look to Kohli for a breakthrough. What irony.

10th over: Australia 100 for 0 Irfan Pathan finally shows up. Let's see if he is any different. No. Watson pulls him for a big six. Another short ball, another pull and another six. Irfan pulls a long face. It's "pull" all around. Now comes a four. Carnage. Tears are welling up my eyes. 19 off the over. Watson completes his fifty, his 9th.

9th over: Australia 81 for 0 Now David Warner gets in on the act. Lifts Harbhajan Singh over midwicket for a six. Another six. It travels even further. 14 off the over. The Aussies on course indeed.

8th over: Australia 67 for 0 Piyush Chawla replaces Zaheer. Double spin attack. Watson unleashes his fury on the leggie with a six off the first ball. Indian bowling looks very ordinary. Here comes another six. This time Watson hits it straight back over the bowler's head. Carnage is the word, isn't it?

7th over: Australia 53 for 0 Now comes into the attack Harbhajan Singh. There has been a lot of hype about him in the build-up to this match. Let's see how he fares. Not quite up to the mark. Concedes a four off the fourth to David Warner. Watson and Warner are scoring runs at will. India desperately need a wicket to make a match of it.

6th over: Australia 47 for 0 Zaheer continues and Warner gets a four off him off the first ball. Two dots and here comes another four. Hits him over the covers into the fence once bounce. Single. Dot. End of the over. Nine off it.

5th over: Australia 38 for 0 Ashwin continues and Watson takes him to the cleaners. Hits two gigantic sixes and one four. Australia are in the driver's seat as of now.

4th over: Australia 22 for 0 Zaheer continues and Warner makes room to cut him for a four on the off-side. Zaheer is getting some bounce off the pitch. Comes back nicely after conceding that boundary. Five off the over.

3rd over: Australia 17 for 0 Ashwin continues. It's one, dot, dot, dot, three and dot. Tight over by the Indian offie.

2nd over: Australia 13 for 0 Rohit fields badly at the covers, two for Watson. Zaheer and Dhoni make faces. The next ball is wide. Zaheer's faces gets back in shape. The Indian bowler comes back nicely by just conceding just one off five balls.

1st over: Australiia 9 for 0 R Ashwin to bowl the first over against Shane Watson and David Warner. Watson is off the mark off the second ball, and Warner cuts it through the offside for a four. Rain stops play, just after three ball. That's the briefest rain interruption I have ever seen. The covers are on and off in the blink of an eye. The ground has been made bone dry inside seven minutes. Ashwin continues and Warner hits it straight back for a boundary. Second boundary for the dangerous Aussie. Two dot balls. Nine off the over.

India innings:

20th over India 140 for 7: Watson to bowl the last over. Raina hits a four off the first. A fulltoss. Hits it over mid-wicket. Another four. The fine-leg is inside the circle. A nice flick off his pads. Raina out. Tries to lift it over the covers but finds Maxwell at long-off. A single for Aswhin. Harbhajan is on strike now. He can hit it hard. He does it but only gets a single. Ashwin also gets a single off the last ball. 11 off the over. The total seems quite competitive, doesn't it? Game on! Remember, the South Africa-Pakistan also went down to the wire earlier in the day on this very ground.

Raina c Maxwell b Watson 26 (19)

19th over India 129 for 6:Pat Cummins replaces Christian. India need some big boundaries. Four balls so far but nothing in sight. Nothing off the fifth as well. Ashwin to play the last. Can he a get a boundary off it? No. Not even a single. Just five off the over.

18th over India 124 for 6: Mitchell Starc replaces Cummins. Now Suresh Raina is key to India's innings. He needs to stay till the end. India get a six. Guess who has done it? It's Ashwin. Pull it hard over the mid-wicket boundary. He can bat boy, can't he? Goes for another on the leg-side but gets a two this time. End of the over. Nine off it. Meanwhile, rain-threatening clouds are hanging over the Premadasa.

17th over India 115 for 6: Daniel Christian comes back and concedes two boundaries. First Raina lifts him straight back for a one bounce four, and then R Ashwin punches him past point. 11 runs off the over. Just the over India needed to get going.

16th over India 104 for 6: Pat Cummins comes back on. Another stat: India's average first innings total is 159. As of now they don't seem to get it, do they? I don't know whether you guys agree but whenever India decide to play five bowlers, something goes wrong with their batting. What must Sehwag be thinking right now? Another Indian wicket goes down. This time it's Mr Dhoni himself. Hits a wide ball straight into the hands of George Bailey at the covers.

MS Dhoni c Bailey b Cummins 15 (21)

15th over India 101 for 5: Hogg continues and Raina greets him with a four. Off the strike off the next ball. Good stuff by the batsman. Five extra runs. Wayward bowling. Too wide on the leg stump and it races past wicketkeeper Mathew Wade. Ten off the over. India need a few more like this.

14th over India 91 for 5: Shane Watson returns. It is he who derailed India two wickets in his previous over. He may not be able to do this time. MS Dhoni pulls him for a four. Watson grimaces. He seems to have too much expectations of himself. Lo and behold, Dhoni lets the third ball go past him. He is not accustomed to do that, is he? Anyway, six off the over. Another good over the Kangaroos.

13th over India 85 for 5: Brad Hogg returns. Ian Chappell says a score around 140 would be competitive. Meanwhile, Dhoni gets an edgy boundary. The ball takes the outside edge of his bat and races towards the third man boundary. Seven runs off the over.

12th over India 78 for 5: Rohit Sharma bowled. Mitchell Starc gets through the batsman's defences. Great stuff. India in big trouble now. MS Dhoni is the next man in and he needs to get up a partnership with Suresh Raina. Four runs off the over.

11th over India 74 for 4: Yuvraj out. Watson uses his cunning, keeps it a bit short and Yuvraj plays into his hands by playing a pull. But the execution is poor and he holes out to Glenn Maxwell at deep midwicket. Rohit Sharma is the next man in. India need quick runs but it's not happening here. Hang on, here falls another Indian wicket. Irfan Pathan goes this time. The ball is on his pads and he flicks it straight into the hands of Cameron White. Two wickets in the over. India in the soup right now.

Yuvraj Singh c Maxwell b Watson 8 (10)

IK Pathan c White b Watson 31 (30)

10th over India 70 for 2: Glenn Maxwell returns. Yuvraj looks in good nick. The last few overs have been pretty quiet. Somebody has to go after the bowlers. It has to be Irfan, he is trying hard but not getting it right. Just four off the over.

9th over India 66 for 2: Yuvraj gets a four off the fourth ball. The rest of the over is relatively quiet. Brag Hogg is turning out to be a tough nut, hard to crack. He is putting all his experience to good effect.

8th over India 60 for 2: Kohli out. Tries to hit Cumins out of the park but gets a top-edge. Daniel Christian takes a good catch around the mid-on region. Yuvraj Singh is the next batsman in. Remember his 30-ball 70 against Australia in the 2007 World T20? Can he repeat that performance? Meanwhile, Ifran plays an aerial shot but it falls short of Starc at deep midwicket. Cumins treats Yuvraj with a bounder. Some pace on that ball. The batsman lets it go. Get off the mark off the next ball.

Kohli c Christian b Cummins 15 (13)

7th over India 56 for 1: Brad Hogg comes into the attack and Irfan paddle-sweeps him for a four off the first ball. A couple of strong shouts from the bowler in the remaining over. Alas, all in vain.

6th over India 50 for 1: Another stat. The average first innings total here at the Premadasa is 160. Meanwhile, Daniel Christian comes into bowl. Irfan shows intention to go after him but noting comes of his efforts. Kohli makes up for Irfan's wild swings by getting a four off the penultimate ball. Hits it hard through the covers.

5th over India 42 for 1: Shane Watson comes into bowl and Irfan Pathan cuts loose. Hits it straight back over the bowler's head for a six. There is more. Pathan gets a four off the last ball. Makes room on the offside and hits it hard.

4th over India 29 for 1: Starc continues and the in-form Kohli gets a boundary off the second ball. Oveall, eight off the over. He is a key figure for India in this match.

3rd over India 21 for 1: For stat buffs: it's the seventh match between these two teams with the head-to-head tied at 3-3. Pat Cumins replaces Maxwell. It's quite funny that never do these spinners continue after bowling the first over, at least in most cases. Meanwhile, Gambhir gets another boundary, this time towards fine-leg. Ok, it seems we have a run-out. Yes it is, Gambhir goes off the last ball. Great stuff by the bowler. Irfan dabs at the ball and is off straight away for a single but Cumins shows his footballing skills to throw down the stumps. Gambhir is short of the crease. A sad way to go out.

Gambhir run out 17 (12)

2nd over India 15 for 0: Mitchell Starc runs in to bowl. A tight over by the pacer until the fifth ball when Gambhir fetches a four with a cut shot on the offside. Overall, seven off the over.

1st over India 8 for 0: Irfan Pathan and Gautam Gambhir walk out to the middle. But who is going to get the red cherry? It's offspinner Glenn Maxwell. That's daring. Let's see what comes of it. It's two runs off the first ball. It was sure racing for a boundary, but nobody knows how it could slow down right on the offside boundary. Two balls later, it's a four. Very much the same shot but with more power. Good start by the Indians. Eight off the over.

7.00 pm: India win toss, will bat first. Virender Sehwag hasn't been included in the team to accommodate five bowlers. Lakshmipathy Balaji and Ashok Dinda also sit out as Zaheer Khan and Ravichandran Ashwin return. Australia are unchanged from their previous match against West Indies. Here are the teams:

6.40 pm: Hello and welcome to the ICC World T20 tie between India and Australia at the Premadasa in Colombo. Word from the ground is dashing India opener Virender Sehwag has been left out to accommodate five bowlers, three of them are spinners namely Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin and Piyush Chawla. Both teams were undefeated in the Group Stage. It's indeed a battle royale. Stay tuned, we will soon be back with the toss.